


To Hell and Back...And Then to Hell Again

by brookwrites



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Amazingphil - Freeform, Angst, DAN AND PHIL - Freeform, Dan Howell - Freeform, Daniel Howell - Freeform, Fluff, Greek Mythology AU, Incest, M/M, Mentions of incest, Oneshot, Phan - Freeform, Phan AU, Phan Angst, Phan Fluff, Phandom - Freeform, Phanfiction, Phil Lester - Freeform, danisnotonfire - Freeform, dap, dnp, hades!dan, persephone!phil, phan oneshot, phanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 09:26:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13097184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brookwrites/pseuds/brookwrites
Summary: Everyone who knows anything about Greek mythology knows about the myth of Dan, the god of the Underworld, and Phil, the young boy he courted. However, the story to how Dan gained the love and trust of the innocent Phil may be a little different than most believe. (Persephone!Phil and Hades!Dan AU)





	To Hell and Back...And Then to Hell Again

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Some swears and mentions of incest because it's Greek mythology

“Isn’t he beautiful, Peej?” Dan gazed through worlds at Phil as he frolicked through the fields on a beautiful, sunny day. Looking around his own surroundings, all Dan saw was fire and darkness. He sighed. “I love him, PJ. I really do.” 

“Dan, that’s your nephew.” 

“And you knocked up your great granddaughter last week. What’s your point?”

PJ hesitated for a moment. “Touche.” 

“This is the first time I’ve ever felt love, compassion, anything really. You’ve got to help me, PJ.” 

PJ sighed. “Fine, I’ll help you concoct a plan.. Besides, as the ruler of this entire universe, fucking with people is one of my favorite things to do.”

“In more ways than one.”

“Dan, do you want my help or not?”

“Yes, yes!” 

“Your only problem is Kathryn,” Zeus said as the two watched a scene unfold on Earth. Phil was overwhelmed with suitors, but Kathryn turned each and every one of them away without even letting Phil near them. 

“I’ve already asked her for her blessing, but she immediately refused. Can’t you talk to her? You know her pretty well.” Dan winked before collapsing laughing. 

“She won’t listen to me anymore. We’ll have to go around.”

“Got any ideas?” 

“Of course.” 

Phil’s only problem was Kathryn. He loved his mother dearly, but she never gave him even a taste of freedom. It was like he was on a leash; she was always with him, ruling his entire life. He just wished he could go out with his friends or even meet someone to possibly marry. He couldn’t help but flash back to only the previous day, when he was hidden behind his rash mother as she turned away every man who came to marry him. Phil barely even got a look at any of them. 

“Can I go play with the nymphs?” Phil taunted his mother with the thought of leaving, if only for a few hours.

She sighed. “Fine, but only because I need to tend to the crops.” 

And the group was off. Phil’s friends were nymphs, so they had to stay by water, but he didn’t mind. Phil loved the water; it was so calm, so pure. He could spend all day by the water. 

“You’re still thinking about yesterday, aren’t you?” one of the nymphs asked. 

“Yeah,” Phil sighed. “If only I could even be allowed to entertain the idea of marrying.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Phil caught sight of a bright yellow flower. It was a ways from the river, but it was beautiful enough to draw Phil in. Something told him he had to see this flower. It could help. He didn’t know how, but it could help. 

And then Phil was running.

“Phil, wait!”

“We can’t come with you!”

“Come back!” 

The chorus of voices sang out for him to return, but the flower drew him ever nearer. Suddenly, he was right in front of the yellow beauty. Phil bent down to examine the flower further. He decided to pick it to appreciate the beauty forever.

There was just one problem. The flower wouldn’t come out of the soil. Phil had never been the strongest, but he could pick a flower. He pulled and pulled on the stem until finally the entire flower came uprooted in his hands. He fell backwards, landing on his back. He sat up and watched in horror as the hole the roots came out of grew larger and larger. Phil scrambled backwards, fear overcoming him as his breathing picked up. Eventually he stumbled and fell down into the hole. 

The temperature rose around him and he fell through thin air, suddenly and painlessly landing on a concrete floor. “Hello?” Phil called out. He looked up to find that the hole in the earth he fell through was completely gone; the room he was in had a completely smooth ceiling. Half the room was lit by torches and completely empty, and the other half was nothing but pure darkness. “Hello!?” 

“Hello.” A deep voice spoke from the dark before Phil finally saw the figure of Dan emerge from the black. 

“You?” 

“Yes. Don’t fear me, please; you’re not dead and I don’t intend to harm you.” Dan walked over to Phil and took his hand, bending over and kissing it. A rush of cold flowed through Phil’s veins. He definitely would have expected Dan to be hot, but he instead provided a cool contrast to the fiery heat of the Underworld. “I only want to marry you.” 

Phil’s head was too full of thought to respond. Dan wanted to marry him and make him a ruler of the Underworld. He looked up at the smiling god and found that his smile wasn’t intimidating. No, it was almost welcoming. He really didn’t have bad intentions; his heart held only love. 

But Phil missed Earth. He missed his friends, he missed his home, and he even missed his mother. He couldn’t stay here forever, could he? It wasn’t until after seconds of awkward silence that Phil finally opened his mouth. “But what about my home?” 

Dan took Phil’s hands in his again, the same cold rush shooting through Phil. It was too hot for him in the Underworld, but it was like Dan’s cold touch protected him from overheating. It kept him alive. Dan spoke in the softest, most loving voice. “This is your home.” 

Suddenly, Phil was full of anger. He tore his hands away from Dan’s, allowing the heat to fill him again. “I want to go home. I want to see my mother.”

“You can’t!” Dan shouted desperately. Phil could hear his deep, rough breathing as his voice calmed. “I’ve loved you for so long…I can’t let you leave me now…” Dan reached his hand out to touch Phil’s back. “Phil-” 

The cold and warm met again as Phil stepped away from him. “Please, just show me to my room.” 

Dan watched on as Phil cried in his bedroom. He truly didn’t mean to cause his love pain; it was just that he’d suffered so much pain living alone here with the dead. After so long, he just wanted some relief. 

“Phil?” he asked, knocking on the door. 

The young boy was in front of him in only a few seconds, wiping tears from his eyes. “What do you want?” 

“I want to make you feel at home here. I know you want to go back, but you-you-” he stuttered, the conscious he didn’t know he had getting to him. “you can’t. I’m sorry, but you just can’t. Is there any way you can be happy here?” 

Phil had done a lot of thinking and resolved that he probably didn’t have much of a choice but to stay, so he might as well make the best of it. Maybe he’d try to fall in love with Dan. It would probably be the only occasion on which his mother would let him marry anyways. Phil cracked a weak smile, trying to stay strong. “You know, I never thought the literal devil would have a sweet side.” 

Dan took his hand, allowing him to cool down as the two walked down the hall. “You know, neither did I.”

Phil didn’t know what it was. Maybe it had something to do with wanting to be independent. Maybe he was being tricked. Maybe it was legitimate. All Phil knew was that after a couple of days he wasn’t so opposed to marrying Dan. 

A wedding was scheduled for Dan and “the hostage”, as Phil heard himself called. It was odd, though, that he didn’t feel like a hostage. He was treated right. Almost better than he was treated by his mother, for that matter. 

Oh, his mother. How he missed her. He didn’t miss her overprotection, but he did truly miss her and how much she loved him. But he was happy here. As impossible as it seemed, Phil was happier than he’d been in years…in the Underworld. 

He unsurprisingly went through with the wedding, but not all the struggles were over. Word came from Earth that Kathryn was desperately searching for Phil. She had fallen into such a state of depression that she couldn’t tend to the world’s crops. 

All the humans were starving. 

Phil’s heart shattered. He didn’t want to leave; he couldn’t stand going back to that old life of being locked up with nobody to spend his life with. But he also couldn’t stand seeing his mother upset. He loved her, but he loved Dan too. All Phil could do was lie in his bed and weep. 

“Look at him cry. He doesn’t want to be here, Dan.” 

“He does! He really does, PJ, I promise.” 

Phil heard the conversation outside his door. He continued to bawl on his jet-black pillows, although his concentration was really on eavesdropping on the two brothers. 

“You know how much Kathryn wants him back. You know she’s threatening to kill them all.” 

“Great, then they’re mine.” 

“No, not great. I’ll be back tomorrow, and we’ll ask him. If he says he’d rather be here, we’ll let him stay with you. If he wants to go back with his mother, he goes. Understood?”

Dan hung his head. “Yes.” 

“Good.” 

And PJ was gone. 

Phil whisked off the bed and to the door, swinging it open. Wide-eyed, he clung to Dan’s arm, letting his cool touch calm him. “What can we do?” 

“Tell them the truth. Tell them you want to stay here.” 

“I-” Phil bit his lip. “I can’t.”

Dan tore his arm away, allowing Phil to clatter to the ground. “Why not?” 

“I want to stay here, I really do. I just-I can’t bring myself to hurt my mother like that. She’s going through so much; I don’t want to make it worse. But I don’t want to hurt you either. Dan, what do I do?” 

Dan sighed, waving his hand and producing a pomegranate. “This is the fruit of the Underworld. Eat it, especially the seeds. This will make you want to live here. That way, they’ll think you’ve been manipulated by the fruit; they’ll have no clue it’s what you really want.” 

Phil’s face lit up, his tear-stained cheeks becoming rosy-red as he wrapped his arms around Dan’s neck, allowing their lips to collide. “Thank you. So much.” 

When the time finally come, there was no fear in Phil as he stated that he wanted to stay in the Underworld. It was the truth, and he had the proper cover to be able to confidently say it. The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that his mother was present. Her eyes bore into his head as if he was her belonging that she was mentally taking back. No, she was wrong. Phil was free. 

For a moment. 

As confident as he was in his response, Kathryn was just as confident in their foul play. “No!” she screamed, collapsing back into her chair. “He can’t stay there; I need him…Please…” Hearing this, Phil’s mind raced back to his first day in the Underworld, when Dan begged for him not to leave. It wasn’t until then that he realized; they both needed him more than he could possibly imagine. “If you give Phil to him, I, I-” in her struggle, Kathryn stuttered. “I’ll never produce another crop again. They’ll all die! Every last one of them! You don’t have a choice. Give me my son back!”

Phil glanced back and forth between Dan and Kathryn. Between the god he’d fallen in love with and the goddess who raised him. Between his husband and his mother. Between two people who both needed him. Between two people he needed both of. 

“There’s only one solution,” PJ said. “Phil wants to stay in the Underworld. That will be honored. Kathryn needs Phil for the harvest to be successful. Therefore, Phil will spend half the year with Kathryn and she will complete the harvest. The other half will be spent in the Underworld with his husband. 

“No!” 

“That’s a terrible idea!” 

Kathryn and Dan both protested greatly, but Phil simply smiled. Both the important people in his life could be with him, and he could be with both of them. It was, quite literally, the best of both worlds. Eventually the two would learn to cooperate, but it was back to Earth for the time being. Phil would miss his husband for their six months apart, but it was for the best. He’d gone to hell and back, and it wasn’t something he’d expected to ever find himself thinking, but he couldn’t wait to go to hell again.


End file.
